It was presented at the Royal Institution on May 17th, 1861 by Clerk Maxwell, who worked with Thomas Sutton to produce this image of a ribbon. It was actually three black and white pictures, each taken through a different color filter, then recombined by layering projections. It’s actually more like our modern digital cameras than like the color techniques that ruled photography for decades.

It’s been 150 long years since that presentation, and photography is still as fascinating and vital as it was then, if somewhat easier. Here’s to another century, photography.